25 November 2011

Following a sampling of the ciders (apple/grape and apple/pomegranate) by the monkeys, dinner was presented. Note that it is not easy getting a decent picture of these guys. Too bad they're not photogenic like their mom. *clears throat*

The best I could get. :)

This isn't turkey! Cool!

Voila!

Henry and I had some pumpkin pie. Alex is not a pie kinda guy. Both kids gave me mad props for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Today has been a lazy day. The second bag of mashed potatoes was polished off by the kids, with pieces of hen thrown in. Thankfully, Henry ate the last piece of pie. I made myself a chicken sandwich with potato bread, sharp cheddar cheese, REAL mayonnaise and course ground deli mustard (extra horseradish!).

There are still dishes to clean, but I'll think about that tomorrow. I did some sleeping, reading and I'm done with my laundry, too. Oh yeah, and I vacuumed my room. I love to vacuum, but don't like hearing the dogs holler the entire time. Sophie is the worst. She was even barking when I turned it off. Sigh.

After procuring the rosemary, I set about making the hens dance with some olive oil, ably assisted by Henry. Alex was a bit grossed out. With the assistance of Henry's clean hands, I peppered and salted, stuffed with rosemary and a Cutie quarter, and placed the birds on the pan. Of course, there was some garlic.

That there is genuine Reynolds wrap.

Into the oven they went. Soon the house smelled of rosemary. Delightful.

The sides for the feast were green beans and mashed potatoes. Have microwave, will travel.

These are always a hit with the guys.

As I do not mash, this is the next best thing.

Here the birds are, roasting away:

They look cozy, no?

The rolls were not terribly exciting, so I didn't take a picture of them.

This year I opted for Cornish game hens. What's in a name? Not a whole lot, apparently, as Wikipedia says that they are neither game nor necessarily hens (female). In short, they are little domesticated chickens sold whole. Throughout the day, they were referred to as chicken, turkey, hens, and Cornish game hens. I still have half of a turkey in the freezer from last year, and since I don't like wasting food, hens were the perfect choice. Bonus: tiny wishbones for everyone!

Aren't they so cute?!

Pocket poultry pals!

The wonders of Google led me to a recipe for these little guys on Allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

4 Cornish game hens

salt and pepper to taste

1 lemon, quartered

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons olive oil

24 cloves garlic

1/3 cup white wine

1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth

4 sprigs fresh rosemary, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

Rub hens with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Lightly season hens with salt and pepper. Place 1 lemon wedge and 1 sprig rosemary in cavity of each hen. Arrange in a large, heavy roasting pan, and arrange garlic cloves around hens. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Transfer hens to a platter, pouring any cavity juices into the roasting pan. Tent hens with aluminum foil to keep warm. Transfer pan juices and garlic cloves to a medium saucepan and boil until liquids reduce to a sauce consistency, about 6 minutes. Cut hens in half lengthwise and arrange on plates. Spoon sauce and garlic around hens. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, and serve.

As mentioned previously, I did not have a lemon or chicken broth, so I improvised with Cuties oranges. I substituted the minced garlic in the big jug from Costco for the whole cloves.

I have lots of fresh rosemary from my front yard, so I braved the rain (after changing my slippers) and picked several sprigs.

24 November 2011

This Thanksgiving was super. We watched the parade just to see my niece. The kids had never watched the parade and I hadn't in years. Now I remember why. :) Their dad would be proud that I exposed them to a smattering of Broadway musicals courtesy of the NBC broadcast: Newsies (no Christian Bale-what a rip!), Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (they were confused), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (the kids were shocked and confused that Harry Potter sang) and Spiderman (why?). We saw the mass cheerleading spectacle that was Ashlee. We could not pick her out, but the we got the general idea. Way cool. She'll point herself out when we're in California for Christmas.

Practicing.

She's in there somewhere.

Following the parade, I imposed my mom-will and watched the AKC dog show. Henry was sporadically interested, in between loud reactions to the game he was playing on the lappy and attempting to explain stuff to me from his game. Alex took that opportunity to go play on the SNES. He played some sort of combat basketball game and enjoyed it immensely. There was a lot of hooting and hollering. Later, he ended up playing Firefox, one of his dad's favorites.
I did some online shopping while watching the dog show. The sight of unaltered male purebred dogs can be disconcerting at first; They're not something you see all that often. Anything I say from here about the testicles will seem weird.

Alex on the left, Henry on the right.

Anywhoodles, I lost interest and departed to my room to bathe and prepare for cooking. I kept it classy (always) by wearing the only avian shirt I could find, velour pants and Hello Kitty slippers.

Essentially, it's a big version of my Samsung Galaxy Vibrant phone, except that it doesn't have cellular which I don't need, cuz it's already on my phone), a camera (ditto) and microphone (duh). I've been using the Android operating system for 3 years now and the Fire does not disappoint. It's way zippy on the innerwebs and even without being able to access the Android Market, I can still find plenty of free apps on the Amazon marketplace. I am loathe to pay for anything, but I did buy Wordfeud. The free version actually has commercials, which are most annoying; $2.90 was well worth it.

I then proceeded to listen to RJD2 from my cloud drive while playing Wordfeud with my mom.
I settled in for the night after starting Netflix. There's really nothing like watching "Keeping Up Appearances" in bed.

31 October 2011

So, I'm walking around Fred Meyer the other night, and I see these exercise contraptions. The machines themselves were not so interesting; it was the model on the boxes that caught my eye. Her mid-section in both pictures appears grotesquely altered. As if she wasn't thin enough! Hopefully this poor girl does not really look like this, as I'm pretty sure she would not have room for such pesky things as internal organs.
Pfft.

Yep, it's dumb-ass duck season here in Canyon Park. Ever since they mowed down the wooded area next to Bothell-Everett Highway, the ducks have been confused. And stupid. I am not familiar with the cognitive abilities of ducks in general, but the ducks around here don't appear to be the sharpest tools in the shed.
Case in point: I turn the corner onto a known duck-crossing area, only to find a bunch of ducks in the road. They were waddling from the creek over to the mowed-down wooded area (I think there is another or the same creek over there). You would think they would move a little faster while picking up their nuts or berries or whatever it was they were nibbling on. Nope. They took their sweet-ass time crossing. I was honking and yelling. I even stuck my head out of my window to holler at them. I swear one of them flipped me off as he/she bent down to pick up a nibble. That or the duck was repeating the refrain that I've been hearing from Alex lately regarding school, "don't worry". Grrr. No babies yet; thank goodness. Drivers around here are great; they will stop in both directions (it's a divided road) to make sure they get across safely. Unfortunately, last year there was a baby duck that didn't make it across. :( It wasn't me, and I'm sure that whomever nailed it felt horrible. I know I would.

17 October 2011

Bookstores and I are old friends. Cheap bookstores and I are really good friends who can't see each other very often because we go a little crazy. I had been able to keep my lustful ways in check over the years by steering clear of the thrift store book shelves, only stealing a glance periodically. I had only been into Half-Price Books once before Saturday, having recognized it as one of those naughty stores where I could get a lot of books for relatively little money. "Half-price, that means I can get two!" It was like going into the grocery store when you're hungry. I did not dare look at the records.

How do you spend $50 on used books? It was the big, purple eco-bag that put me over the top, no doubt. I needed something to bring all the books home in, right?

I shan't list all of the books I bought, as I do actually have a job I need to get to (and clothes to put on), but I will say that the first book I've decided to read is remarkable so far. I'm only a few chapters in, but what is really interesting so far is the author: Theodora Keogh. She was a granddaughter of Theodore Roosevelt and only wrote for a short time in the early 50s and 60s. I'm reading My Name is Rose. Go check out her Wiki.

14 October 2011

I was looking at a baseline in a chromatogram and thought of FAC (flat ass calm), an acronym used by the boy. FAC is when the water is totally flat. Not surprisingly, the innerwebs told me that it is used primary in military and nautical circles.

13 October 2011

I would like to submit a picture of a stellar preparation of your Igloo Spread with Cream Cheese Penguins as prepared by my mother. Of the pictures I have seen on the internet of this recipe (including this website), my mom's was the best. Thank you.

I received this response:

Dear Carol Morris-Tilden:

Thank you for contacting General Mills.

It is General Mills’ policy not to accept submitted ideas in order to avoid compromising our internal product research, development and marketing efforts. Although we appreciate your sincere interest in General Mills and its products, we are unable to consider your request.

Again, thank you for your interest in General Mills and your enthusiasm for our products.

Sincerely,

Imee B. Roberts

Consumer Services

am I right?

I don't think Imee B. Roberts genuinely considered my request. If I could have attached a picture, I'm confident that Imee B. Roberts would have enthusiastically accepted.General Mills' policy, my foot. They just don't want to admit that their picture sucks, and mom's is better. You be the judge.

10 October 2011

Me: *hollering* why do i hear yammering?! go to bed!
Alex: i was telling henry about my elusive dream.
Me: your what? you guys need to be sleeping.
Alex: my elusive dream. you know, when you can control your dream.
Me: LUCID dream. you mean lucid dream. l-u-c-i-d. elusive is when something is hard to find.
Alex: oh. i thought it was elusive. lucid. you know what it is? you've had one?
Me: yes. they're pretty sweet. now, go to bed!
Alex: i'm going to have a mental picture of a *bionicle, and when i see one in my dream, i will know i'm having a dream and then i can control the dream.
Me: ok, but go to bed!
Henry: i had a lucid dream once where i was floating above the ground facing down but then i fell.
Me: Umm, ok. love you guys.
Alex: (bionicle, bionicle)

it is exchanges such as this that keeps me from murderlizing them.
they are also adorable when they sleep.
especially when alex talks nonsense when i take his glasses and henry snores and sleeps with his eyes open. they are going to make two lucky girls very happy.

In order to participate in Pinterest, I needed to hook it up to a social networking thingie. I don't FB, so I joined through Twitter. I don't expect to do a whole lot with the Twitter; it is just a means to an end.

Ask me for my super-secret-squirrel-Twitter-name thing if you really want to see what amuses me.
Or not.
That's ok too.